Workshop Description –

Across the world and especially in places and projects rooted in hope for new kinds of future, ordinary people are experiencing powerlessness and grief due to the suspension of rights and freedom. The freedom to imagine and create a vision for our world is not a luxury, but the food that fuels our existence and gives us the courage and hope to build a different future that can ensure the well being of all. Young people play the most important role in building new imaginations for the future and inspire every other generation with their energy, bravery and creativity.

Spaces of Hope invites this incredible youth energy to shape the future of the places around us for the benefit of all beings through the power of art, design and planning – practices that need to be used to build a democratic society for all and that can be used powerfully to develop and share your collaborative vision for the future.

Spaces of Hope is a grassroots planning, design and art school in a long tradition of street schools and community led popular education. We will develop art work, policy recommendations and a youth vision platform to share with the wider community as an exhibition and discussion series. We will organize film screenings, guest discussions from experts in the field that will be open to public and art build activities to bring the youth of AV together to envision a new and hopeful future through creative tools. We will also learn about similar projects and movements around the world.

10 participants invited – applications open with full scholarships. A serious commitment to attending all sessions is necessary. Youth between 15-25 may apply, no prior experience needed. We welcome involvement from all generations and the youth that never ages. Girls – do not hesitate to apply!

Start and End Date – 7 weeks/ Oct 19 – Dec 14 on Sundays, 2:30 pm-6:30 pm

Forums co-led and curriculum designed by Masoom Moitra, an urban planner, designer, artist and architect with 15 years of experience with participatory design, policy and planning and how citizens of all generations and backgrounds can use these skills to make our cities liveable for everyone. She has taught for over a decade at leading design schools in New York City (Parsons and Pratt), Mumbai (KRVIA) and worked with community groups, non profit organizations, people’s movements and governments across the world.

Workshops will be co-led and organized by Dingbawi, coordinator at Youth Center and longtime youth resident of Auroville.

You can join these workshops if you are interested in being a civic leader, or want to explore a future career in community based design or planning that is in service of people and committed to making our world a better place, or even if you are simply a concerned neighbor or community member of any age who wants to work with us to make our towns, villages and cities better places to live in for all. We will focus not on developing building skills but on critical thinking, strategizing and visioning. Sessions will be conducted in English and Tamil translation will be available on request. Guest lectures will be free and open to the public.

If you have any further questions or inquiries, please reach out to us at spacesofhopedesign@gmail.com before October 10, 2025. You can find the very simple application form here and via the QR code – https://forms.gle/PQRfZHVzd6DqCwh16

We are happy to announce a course in Market Gardening from Nov 5th 2025 to Jan 28th 2026.

This is the first in the course series on different aspects including integrating animals in farming, orchard design and management and an integral philosphy of food and agriculture.

To make this course accessible to a wide range of learners and practitioners, the course offers a hybrid engagement- offline and residency.

The course fee is also on a sliding scale with possibilities for scholarships.
We welcome you to register for the course, and share it with others who may be interested.

– AuroOrchard

Market Gardening

The Franco–Indian Education Trust is now accepting applications for the Amba Dalmia scholarship for the academic year 2025–26.

Established in 2018 by Dr. Gun Nidhi Dalmia in memory of his daughter, Amba Dalmia, this scholarship program has assisted over 20 students in pursuing their academic goals.

This program provides financial support to talented young women who aspire to pursue higher education in France in various fields such as Music, Theatre, Sports, Arts, Sculpture, Cinema, Ballet, Opera, Painting, Photography, Oenology, Culinary studies, Tailoring, Stitching and Fashion.

Selected students will receive a monthly living allowance to assist with their expenses while studying in France. Additionally, they will receive support from the Embassy of France in India, providing access to social security benefits, waiver of Campus France and visa fees, and other benefits.

The deadline for applications is Friday, June 20, 2025, at 11:59 pm IST.

For detailed information on eligibility requirements, the application procedure, and other pertinent details, please click the link – https://lnkd.in/dQ2p9kaW

The Franco–Indian Education Trust is now accepting applications for the Amba Dalmia scholarship for the academic year 2025–26.

Established in 2018 by Dr. Gun Nidhi Dalmia in memory of his daughter, Amba Dalmia, this scholarship program has assisted over 20 students in pursuing their academic goals.

This program provides financial support to talented young women who aspire to pursue higher education in France in various fields such as Music, Theatre, Sports, Arts, Sculpture, Cinema, Ballet, Opera, Painting, Photography, Oenology, Culinary studies, Tailoring, Stitching and Fashion.

Selected students will receive a monthly living allowance to assist with their expenses while studying in France. Additionally, they will receive support from the Embassy of France in India, providing access to social security benefits, waiver of Campus France and visa fees, and other benefits.

The deadline for applications is Friday, June 20, 2025, at 11:59 pm IST.

For detailed information on eligibility requirements, the application procedure, and other pertinent details, please click the link – https://lnkd.in/dQ2p9kaW

The tanpura is a unique instrument which has evolved over centuries in the Indian subcontinent and offers us a portal to the world of sound. Its resonating strings create a rich harmonic foundation that serves as both a constant companion and an invisible guide for the musician.

In this workshop, participants will discover how a sustained sound from this single instrument can open the door to an entire “space” of sound, offering an immersive experience and a deeper understanding of the emotional dimensions of Indian Raag Music.

* Introduction to the Tanpura: Familiarize yourself with the history, structure, and cultural significance of the tanpura.
* Understand Sound Space: Explore the abstract world of sound, with a focus on how the tanpura enables musicians to access and navigate this space.
* Practical Techniques: Hands-on guidance on tuning, playing, and maintaining the tanpura, with a focus on creating the perfect sound balance.
* Listening and Perception: Activities designed to deepen listening skills, helping you appreciate the nuanced harmonics produced by the tanpura and the meditative quality it brings to Indian Raag Music.

About Sarang Phagre

Sarang is a Raag Sangeet vocalist who has imbibed the essentials of performing arts from his parents, Bindu Juneja (Odissi dancer) and Abhay Phagre (Flautist).
He is fortunate to have received training from Vid. Meera Rao and guidance from Pt. Vijay Sardeshmukh, both disciples of Pt. Kumar Gandharva. He’s currently receiving guidance from Shri Vishal Moghe.
Recipient of scholarship for vocal music by the Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India, Sarang also is an A-grade artist of the All India Radio.

To register: whatsapp +91-8870988843

Poster by @moving_image

https://www.instagram.com/p/DF9o2Hzz808/?img_index=5&igsh=MXNld3ZrdWQ2dWdzMg%3D%3D

Tue – Fri: 2-5.30

Sat: 10-12.30, 2-5.30

Guided visits on Saturdays at 10.30

Opening on Friday 7 February at 4.30

With his iconic playfulness and vibrant use of colours, Mario d’Souza aims at creating a sur mesure decor, transforming traditional Indian patterns and everyday objects into a graphic pop installation.

The motif no longer has a scale, at times nestling in an embroidery, invading space, limitless, it can be found at the bend of a piece of furniture, painted on a window, or sometimes, stripped to its essence, it becomes the source of inspiration from which emerges a vivid creation.

The installation – bridging the distinction between art and craftsmanship – is a celebration of a community made up of a variety of objects. The artist, with his talent for assembling and linking diverse worlds, is able to create harmony while illuminating differences.

The relationship between Mario d’Souza and Auroville started in 2019 through an art residency program at la Petite Maison Auroville. Centre d’Art is thrilled to have him back and host his new exhibition.

BIO

Mario d’Souza was born in 1973 in Bangalore. After obtaining a Master’s degree in Fine Arts, at the MSU in Baroda, Gujarat, at the age of 22, he left India to visit France, while on a scholarship from ‘École des Beaux-Arts’.
Mario since then lives between France and India, where, thanks to his talent, he has received numerous grants, has taken part in many artistic residencies as well as solo and group exhibitions in both countries.

https://www.ifa.de/en/funding/rave-stipendium/

MINISTRY OF CULTURE, GOVERNMENT OF INDIA

15 A, Sector-7, Dwarka, New Delhi-110075

SCHEME FOR AWARD OF SCHOLARSHIPS TO YOUNG ARTISTES IN DIFFERENT CULTURAL FIELDS

Off-line Applications are invited by CRT, Ministry of Culture, Govt. of India for the award of Scholarships from Young Artistes of Outstanding promise in the fields of Indian Classical Music, Indian Classical Dances, Light Classical Music, Theatre, Visual Arts and Folk Traditional and Indigenous Arts.

Please note Applications are invited for the Batch Year 2022-23 with effect from 15th February, 2024. There are 400 scholarships available this year. Details of the schemes, instructions for applicants, eligibility conditions/criteria and Application Module are available on the following websites of the Ministry of Culture Government of India and CCRT i.e. indiaculture.nic.in & ccrtindia.gov.in.

31st March, 2024 is the last date for submission of applications.

ONLY OFF-LINE APPLICATIONS WILL BE ACCEPTED

BC 09127/12/0012/2324

Applications Close: 5 October, 2023

Depending on the proposal and the length of the proposed programme, the Foundation will provide an allowance of Rs. 15,000 per month for the duration of the programme, which should not exceed one year.

The applicant must send a letter from the mentor / institution under whom the applicant proposes to undergo the skill enhancement programme. The mentor will submit a half term and end of year progress report of the applicant to the Foundation.

ABOUT THE AWARD:

• For short-term awards (of three months or less) the amount awarded will be paid upfront and the mentor or institution will need to submit a letter certifying that the awardee attended and completed the programme for which the award was made.
• For longer-term awards (of over three months) half the amount awarded will be paid at the beginning. The second instalment will be paid at the midpoint of the term of the award on receipt of a progress report from the head of the institution, mentor, guide or guru under whom the applicant will be working.
• The number of awards could vary between 3-4, depending on the merit of the applications received.
• The selection procedure will take place in two rounds. The written application and reference letters will be the major criterion for the first round. The short-listed applicants will then be expected to appear in front of the selection committee for an interview and audition for the final selection.
• The candidates short-listed for the interview will be informed by early November 2023. The final interviews will be held on-line by early December 2023.

ELIGIBILITY:

• The applicant should be a recent graduate / post-graduate from a leading Indian institute for theatre arts in India. Applicants not having a formal degree but possessing a record of high quality record of past achievements may be considered in exceptional circumstances.
• The recipient should not hold a similar / government scholarship or award during the tenure of the Inlaks Theatre Award.
• Those born on or after 1^st January 1988 are eligible to apply for the 2024 awards.
• The applicant for this award must be an Indian passport holder, currently resident in India.
• Please state if you have you applied for an Inlaks award before. If so, mention the year you had applied.
• The downloaded application form may be filled in by hand or by type and should be emailed to info@inlaksfoundation.org
• The application must be submitted in pdf format.
• Please note that there is a 10 MB limit on pdf submissions. If your file is not in pdf format or is over 10 MB it will not be considered.
• The subject line should read as: Inlaks Theatre Award 2023

ATTACHMENTS TO BE INCLUDED WITH THE DULY FILLED IN FORM:

• Letter of acceptance from your Guru/ Guide /institution/collaborator with whom you intend to work.

DOWNLOAD FORM HERE

HOW TO APPLY

Applications should be submitted HERE along with the following documents:

• Curriculum vitae
• Copy of passport
• Passport photograph
• Proof of educational qualifications – High school and university marksheet and passing certificate/degree
• Evidence that you have been accepted unconditionally for the course, project or that progress towards acceptance has been made
• No Objection Certificate from the Indian institution (if you are a student)
• Internship documents or Portfolio submission where appropriate in either CD/DVD or hard copy format
• Motivation letter

https://www.inde.campusfrance.org/amba-dalmia-scholarship-program

Gilles Grimaître visited Auroville for a few days during his Pro Helvetia artist residency in Bengaluru, Chennai and Puducherry to engage with Carnatic music. The program he chose for the evening of Dec. 17^th, 2022, was a passionate, loving introduction to usually not so accessible Western avant-garde music.

Grimaître started off with Johannes Brahms – Drei Intermezzi op 117, a romantic crowd pleaser, followed by a more challenging piece by Olli Mustonen (*1967) called ‘Jehkin Iivana’. Nobody would know the composers he selected after Brahms for the evening unless they were a very dedicated avant-garde music enthusiast, he said. But he wanted to show, that avant-garde music can be fun and playful. We all smiled and laughed when he played Daniel Moreira(*1984) – Rhythmic Study no 4 (“Ludvan ven Beethowig”). Moreira plays with Beethoven’s ‘Für Elise’, which almost everyone who likes piano music knows. He cuts and samples, loops and collages pieces in such a light and playful way, that we lose all fear of contemporary music.

„Gilles Grimaître plays Daniel Moreira Rhythmic Study no 4 (Ludvan ven Beethowig)“ 

I recognized Moreira’s teacher, Marco Stroppa, as a personal friend of mine was a student of his as well. I find his students are funny, serious, eloquent. Gilles Grimaître played with astonishing lightness, joy and precision.

The next piece was by Beat Furrer (*1954) – ‘Voicelessness. The snow has no voice’. Grimaître laughed when he said that he chose that piece as a Christmas tune for Auroville. Snow around Christmas may be a rare event here and should trouble us deeply if it ever happens. The piece is sincere, concentrated, I saw the snowflakes dancing, losing any sense of time, there was no beginning nor end, no dramatic structure or storytelling, just meditative, minimalistic concentration.

„Gilles Grimaître plays Beat Furrer Voicelessness The snow has no voice“ 

After the piece, it took Grimaître an eternity of stage seconds to come back into the room. The intensity of concentration was palpable. The last piece was special, it was written by a composer from Ukraine, and we might guess why that fits into the year 2022. It was written many years ago by Valentin Silvestrov (*1937) called ‘Davos Lake’, for the Davos festival. There was a concept to play piano concerts one on one. The piano player would play for 5 minutes for one person in a small room. I thought that this was pure capitalism. But when I heard the music – so tender and heartfelt, intimate, and loving – I saw it as a guerilla tactic, to melt the hearts of the listener and create an intimate connection between performer and audience. This concept came up during Corona again, i.e. at the Kammerorchester in Stuttgart.

The encore was Frank Zappa’s ‘The Black page’ the avant-garde Rock Star, with classical training and the enfant terrible of the hybrid music world that blurs genre boundaries and doesn’t care about high and low brow culture.

Thank you for a beautiful, joyful, memorable evening at the end of the year, that was globally so troubling.

Bio:

Gilles Grimaître was born in Geneva in 1988 studied improvisation and took an avid interest in composition and contemporary music. He entered the Hochschule der Künste Bern where he continued his musical training with Prof. Pierre Sublet. He also studied the organ with Pascale Van Coppenolle and composition with Xavier Dayer. As soloist and chamber musician, Gilles Grimaître performs regularly in Europe. He often plays with Ensemble Contrechamps, Collegium Novum Zürich, Ensemble Proton and Ensemble Modern. He specializes in the accompaniment with vocalists, working often as an opera accompanist. He is also an active improviser and plays in the experimental band [bleu]. Gilles Grimaître won the first prize at the 2013 Nicati competition for contemporary music and received scholarships from the Marescotti Foundation, the Irène Dénéréaz Foundation and the Gabriele De Agostini Foundation. He was scholarship holder at the International Ensemble Modern Academy in Frankfurt/Main for the academic year 2013-2014.

https://www.ensemblelemniscate.com/gilles-grimaitre

The Blue Steps Studio will start awarding scholarships to young and aspiring artists in 2022. Registered scholars receive INR 10,000 in two payments every three months, for a total of six months per year, under the scheme. The purpose of this scholarship programme is to provide these young people with the opportunity to create new experimental work and develop innovative ideas in their respective fields of visual arts.

ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA:

The Students/Applicant should have education in the field of Art – Degree Final year [or] MFA. The candidate’s age should not be less than 21 years and not more than 35 years as on 1st January of the year in which the application is being made. Age relaxation is not permissible.

You can apply by filling out the Google form HERE.

A Blue Steps Studio panel will make the scholarship selections, and the results will be mailed out after January 28th.

The scholarship scheme covers the Rs 1,00,000 tuition fee for Attakkalari’s six-month-long program and provides a sum of Rs. 1,50,000 for the student to cover their living expenses in Bangalore. The last date for application is Sept 6, 2022.
­
(Note: Applicants must have successfully cleared the audition for the course in order to apply for the scholarship. The applications will be scrutinised and assessed based on a predefined process.)

APPLY NOW

K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg provides three eight-month residencies to choreographers, who are currently at the beginning of their career and have produced some choreographic work of their own. The residency starts in August and runs until April of the following year. It includes a monthly scholarship, production budget, and dramaturgical support, as well as participation in training, courses, etc.

The application can only be made in English through an online form and the deadline is August 11, 2022 (11:59 p.m. CET).
MORE

• Scheme for the Award of Scholorships to Young Artists in Different Cultural Fields
• Scheme for the Award of Junior and Senior Fellowship to Outstanding Persons in Field of Culture.

Alaknanda Samarth’s passing on the morning of Monday, December 6, has come as a deep shock to her numerous friends in Mumbai, Kolkata, Delhi and elsewhere. Although she lived in London, she knew more about what was going on in theatre and politics in India than many who live here.

Alaknanda was one of the most extraordinary actors that Mumbai has produced. Some of her genius was inherited from her lineage, which included the doyenne of Mumbai theatre, Vijaya Mehta, and film stars Tanuja, Nutan and Kajol. But she also stood apart from the mainstream as an actor who never stopped challenging herself and exploring new idioms, new languages, new forms in her work.

Mumbai saw her genius in three exciting spurts. The first was in 1960 when Ebrahim Alkazi cast her as Miss Julie in August Strindberg’s play of the same name. She was around 19 then, hardly of an age to understand Strindberg’s dark world or the sexually complex young aristocratic woman she was playing. Even her costume — decollete gown, heels, glove and fur hat — was forbiddingly alien. And yet, she carried off her role with enough aplomb to impress a professor from an American university sitting in the audience, who was later instrumental in her being offered the Wien International Scholarship in Theatre Arts to Brandeis University in the US. On her way back from the US, she stopped in London, auditioned for RADA (the Royal Academy of Theatre Art) and won the Queen Elizabeth scholarship to study there for a year. By the time she returned home in 1965, her mentor Alkazi had moved to the National School of Drama and Satyadev Dubey was running Theatre Unit, the group that Alkazi had set up in Bombay. Always quick to snap up any acting talent that appeared on the horizon, Dubey instantly cast Alaknanda as Estelle in Band Darwaze, his Urdu translation of Sartre’s No Exit.

Band Darwaze stunned Bombay, Delhi and wherever else it went. There were page-long reviews, congratulatory phone calls to Alaknanda’s parents and a general sense among the audience of having seen a radically different kind of theatre than anything they had seen before. The production became something of a legend. Many who had not seen it were convinced they had, because of the vivid descriptions they had heard of it.

In the same year, 1965, Dubey made the experimental film Aparichay ke Vindhyachal, in which he, the mime artist Irshad Panjatan and Alaknanda did a mock-up of a Hindi film triangle against the background of Mumbai’s trains, slums and the Worli Sea Face. It was a breezy film full of abandon, laughter and Dubey’s personal angst.

After this we lost sight of Alaknanda for a few years. She was travelling with her French husband Francois Duriaud to wherever his organisation, Reuters, posted him. Coming to a halt in London, she was the first Indian actor to play the lead in a classical play at the Old Vic. But that could never be her beat. She was too busy pushing boundaries with London’s avant-garde theatre groups.

Alaknanda returned to India when Duriaud was posted to Delhi. She taught then at the National School of Drama at B V Karanth’s invitation and later at Thrissur, ditching conventional pedagogy for her own methods. During the latter stint, she directed two Malayalam plays but did not appear on the stage herself. That happened in 1987 with two monologues directed by Kumar Shahani, The Human Voice by Jean Cocteau, and Kunti written specially for Alaknanda by G Sankara Pillai, a pioneer of modern Malayalam theatre. This production brought together a group of towering artists. Akbar Padamsee designed the production, Chandralekha choreographed it, Bhanu Athaiya costumed it, Piyush Shah lit it and Veenapani Chawla produced it. To meet Alaknanda in those days was to hear of the painful contortions that her director was putting her through in an effort to bend her body and voice to his vision. Rustom Bharucha, sitting in on rehearsals was to write later in his Letter to an Actress, “You possess what Nina in The Seagull declares as the true mark of an actress — stamina.”

Alaknanda’s final appearance on the city’s stage was in 1993 in a collaborative installation of art and theatre with Nalini Malani. They chose Heiner Mueller’s Medea Trilogy as their text. Alaknanda spoke it in her deep, evocative voice as she moved from one performance space to another against the background of huge panels painted by Nalini. Those images and that soundscape have stayed in one’s memory to this day.

On July 8, 2018 Alaknanda and Francois were on Eurostar en route to France for the funeral of a relative when he collapsed. It was a massive heart attack. He was rushed to hospital but was declared dead. Alaknanda went into shock. Two years later, in July this year, she was diagnosed with cancer. Even while the disease was consuming her, she was reading Eliot’s The Waste Land and the Upanishads in preparation for a recording of the poem that she and her voice guru Patsy Rodenburg had planned. Earlier in the year, Alaknanda had recorded a magnificent podcast of Antonin Artaud’s Theatre and the Plague, turning it into a piece of powerful vocal theatre, using timbre, pitch, modulation and inflection of the voice to make it live for us immediately and urgently. Who knows, perhaps she was still reciting lines from The Waste Land to herself as she breathed her last?

This column first appeared in the print edition on December 8, 2021 under the title ‘Her genius on stage’. Gokhale is a writer, translator, journalist and theatre critic

Read Online

K-Sori – Episode 4 – Remidas & Hansako

Join us on Thursday, 9 December 202l Time : 6.00 p.m. IST
Clik: https://www.youtube.com/user/lnKoCentre

The link to view the performance will be accessible until Sunday, 9 January 2022.

Remidas

Remidas comprises geomungo player Kim Minyeong and gayageum player Park Jihyeon, both of whom perform creative music with open-mindedness. Since 20 I 5, these two musicians have been exploring and developing the timbres and techniques expressed through improvisation and creating music based on such experimentation. They create music based on traditional compositions and combine this with improvisational music, or the present-day sinawi, i.e. a type of traditional Korean music performed improvisationally by a musical ensemble to accompany the rites of Korean shamanism.

Hansako

Hansako means to ‘struggle with death’. The musicians aim to explore traditional musical expressions that resonate and reflect the contemporary era.

Neo folk music band Badi
Badi means superlative sori (music) that a student learns and refines under the guidance of his/her teacher. The group Badi is a music band who reinterpret traditional folk music, which is considered rather difficult to understand. Since their inception, they have composed and arranged their oeuvre to present a musical vocabulary that is refreshing and unique.

• When: Premiered on 19 Nov 2021. The performances will be accessible until Sunday, 19 December 2021.
• Where: Online, Click Here

K-Sori, is an episodic series presented in association with Lotte Foundation, Noreum Machi and Nowpan Korea, to showcase emergent young musicians from Korea who provide a contemporary twist to traditional instrumentation and compositions. The series presents select winners of the annual Chulsapyo competition that began in 2015 in Korea to provide scholarships to high school and college students to encourage them to study gugak (traditional Korean music) and create qualitative compositions using traditional Korean instruments. The series celebrates the spitit of this initiative which aims to nurture, preserve and promote traditional Korean music amongst young musicians and a contemporary audience, both in Korea and around the world.

Purpose: Funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO)  Commonwealth Shared Scholarships enable talented and motivated individuals to gain the knowledge and skills required for sustainable development, and are aimed at those who could not otherwise afford to study in the UK.

Intended beneficiaries: Commonwealth Shared Scholarships are for candidates from least developed and lower middle income Commonwealth countries, to undertake full-time Master’s study on selected courses at a UK university.

These scholarships are offered under six development themes.

For More Details : https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/scholarships/commonwealth-shared-scholarships-2022/

Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Vastu Sangrahalaya, Mumbai presents Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Art History Lecture Series

• When: 11 am – 12 noon, Saturdays, November 20, 27, and December 4, 2021
• For more information and registration, click here

Abstract of the three lectures

This lecture series will discuss the iconographical, stylistic, architectural, and cultural matrix of the temples of western and central India between the 8^th –12^th centuries from the perspective of the representation of apsaras-devangana sculptures. It will explore the archaeological material employing Indian and western methodologies of interpretation expanding our understanding of patronage, and cultural identity in Pre-Modern Medieval India.

For details on each lecture, click here

Note: The lectures are free and open to all, some prior knowledge or appreciation for Indian art history, architecture, sculpture, in general, would be beneficial.

About the Speaker 
Dr. Gauri Parimoo Krishnan is an art historian, independent curator, and museum consultant. She has curated major international exhibitions of Indian and Asian Art for the past 28 years. Her research and publications include Medieval Indian Sculpture, Asian Ramayana and Buddhist art, Indian Diaspora, and Indian Trade Textiles to Southeast Asia. At present, she teaches Museum Studies and Curatorship at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore aside from consulting museum projects such as the Pradhan Mantri Sangrahalaya in New Delhi among others.

The Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Programme was instituted in 2017 at the CSMVS by eminent art historian, Dr. Devangana Desai with the aim to propagate research and dissemination of study of ancient, medieval and pre modern (until 1900s) art, archaeology, architecture, culture and history of India.

The three activities slated under this Programme-

1. The Annual Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Lecture 
2. The Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Scholarships for Junior and Senior Scholars 
3. The Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Art History Class 

• When: 11 am – 12 noon, Saturdays, November 20, 27, and December 4, 2021
• For more information and registration, click here

Abstract of the three lectures

This lecture series will discuss the iconographical, stylistic, architectural, and cultural matrix of the temples of western and central India between the 8^th –12^th centuries from the perspective of the representation of apsaras-devangana sculptures. It will explore the archaeological material employing Indian and western methodologies of interpretation expanding our understanding of patronage, and cultural identity in Pre-Modern Medieval India.

For details on each lecture, click here

Note: The lectures are free and open to all, some prior knowledge or appreciation for Indian art history, architecture, sculpture, in general, would be beneficial.

About the Speaker 
Dr. Gauri Parimoo Krishnan is an art historian, independent curator, and museum consultant. She has curated major international exhibitions of Indian and Asian Art for the past 28 years. Her research and publications include Medieval Indian Sculpture, Asian Ramayana and Buddhist art, Indian Diaspora, and Indian Trade Textiles to Southeast Asia. At present, she teaches Museum Studies and Curatorship at the Nanyang Technological University, Singapore aside from consulting museum projects such as the Pradhan Mantri Sangrahalaya in New Delhi among others.

The Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Programme was instituted in 2017 at the CSMVS by eminent art historian, Dr. Devangana Desai with the aim to propagate research and dissemination of study of ancient, medieval and pre modern (until 1900s) art, archaeology, architecture, culture and history of India.

The three activities slated under this Programme-

1. The Annual Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Lecture 
2. The Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Scholarships for Junior and Senior Scholars 
3. The Dr. Devangana Desai Endowment Art History Class 

Languages | Assamese, Bangla, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, Malayalam, Odia, Tamil and Urdu.

Grant | INR 6 lakhs for each fellow

For More Details and to Apply

K3 | Tanzplan Hamburg provides three paid eight-month residencies per season to choreographers who are currently at the beginning of their career and have produced some choreographic work of their own. The residency begins in August and runs until April of the following year. The residency includes mentoring and dramaturgical, technical, and production related support. It moreover links the projects proposed by the choreographers in residence closely to the various other on-going programs of K3.

The goal of the residency is to develop and strengthen the connections between choreographic practice, research, artistic production, and qualification. The length of eight months should provide sufficient time and space for overcoming conventional rhythms of production and open up space for exchange with other artists and interested parties in order to receive new impulses and contacts. Over the course of the residency the three choreographers will each develop a full-length piece that is presented at the end of the residency on three evenings.

For choreographers interested in applying to the residency programme, we offer two info zooms:

1 July – 10am (CET)

5 August – 5pm (CET)

Please register with your name and date: tanzplan@kampnagel.de

Application Requirements:

• The applicant must be at the beginning of his/her career and should have already implemented some projects of his/her own (outside of a university context).

• The applicant is available for the entire duration of the residency from August 2021 until April 2022 to stay in Hamburg.

• The applicant is willing to participate in K3’s outreach programme and other events at K3.

• The applicant is interested both in engaging in exchange with other artists, as well as with an interested audience.

• The applicant already has some experience in / is interested in dealing with choreography on a discursive level, reflecting her/his own work, as well as working in a self-organised manner.

• Only applications by individuals can be accepted. Applications by teams or ensembles cannot be taken into consideration.

• We accept applications in all choreographic fields (e.g. dance for young audience) and from all nationalities.

The residency programme covers:

• a monthly scholarship (for living expenses, accommodation)

• one-time travel expenses from and to place of residence

• a moderate production budget for the performances at the end of the residency, which allows for a small team over the last few weeks of the residency

• use of the K3 studios

• an accompanying support from the K3 team in the fields of dramaturgy, organisation, technical assistance, and public relations 

• active participation in the K3 outreach programme

• After consulting with K3, accessibility costs can be covered in most cases. If you have any questions regarding accessibility, you can find some general information HERE and in our FAQ.

The application deadline is 12 August 2021 (11:59pm central European time).

The application can only be made in English through the ONLINE FORM.

The application form contains e.g. questions concerning artistic background, motivation, and details on the artistic project being proposed for the residency. If for accessibility reasons you need help in navigating the application form or need to send in your application in another form, you can contact us via mail or phone.

The online application form can be filled in, edited and saved during the application period (21 June 2021 to 12 August 2021 11:59pm). All applications, which have not been sent before the deadline, will be deleted. It is not possible to apply in any other way or to extend the deadline.

For inquires please contact tanzplan@kampnagel.de or +49 (0) 40 / 270 949 – 45

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities/puducherry/minimalistic-works-from-auroville-film-institute-make-a-splash-at-swiss-festival/article33110864.ece

Four minimalist short films produced by aspirant directors, led by the Auroville Film Institute, have made the cut at a film festival affiliated with the University of Lausanne, Switzerland.

The selected films were screened between November 9 and 15 at University of Lausanne’s CineMasala festival, organised for the researchers and aficionados of history, religions and languages of South Asia.

The entries were Swanand Kottewar’s Haalat (The state of Being), Daydreamingby Sanket Ray, In the Shadows by Vedangi Kalzunkar and Leftovers by Annika Ambar.

Haalat deals with silence, nothingness and a lost sense of time as it grapples with feelings of anxieties and mixed hopes for an uncertain future. Daydreaming revolves around the musings of an artist on himself during confinement. Leftover, shot in the kitchen, describes a relationship between mother and daughter as she shares recipes and “In the shadows” unfolds as a poem on the social distance between the middle class and the disadvantaged class accentuated during confinement.

Over the past months of the pandemic, Auroville Film Institute had conducted eight online filmmaking workshops with over 200 participants producing over 80 short films. 

While some of the participants pursued careers in the cinema industry, the majority of the aspirants were following a passion and represented as diverse fields as psychology, engineering, teaching, dance and yoga.

The films were entirely shot in a Work from Home mode due to the restrictive environment around the pandemic that also occasioned a reflective, introspective phase in participants.

Online workshop

‘Film your thoughts in times of lockdown’, the AFI’s first online workshop began as a way to interpose one’s self with surroundings.

“It was a way to reclaim our own agency over the media infiltrating our personal space and psyche, a way to express the pandemic as we ourselves experienced it, what we thought, how we felt inside. Above all, it was a way to connect with others in these times of distress and loneliness,” said Richa Hushing, documentary filmmaker, who, along with Rrivu Laha, co-founded AFI.

From rough cut to final edited version, the films became chronicles of inner journeys in these extraordinary times. 

“There is a marked authenticity and affectionate touch to the narratives, as if they are notes from personal diaries trustfully shared with friends. Some of these films are already earning accolades internationally,” Ms. Hushing said.

Highly intuitive

According to AFI, despite being online, the Auroville Film Institute workshop was highly intuitive and interactive.

“Making a film from fragments to whole felt like I was breathing for the first time! For this I’ll always appreciate Auroville!” shared Annika, a sociology student from Delhi, whose Leftovers marked her debut.

“It’s a matter of pride that most are first-time filmmakers coming from diverse backgrounds such as academicians, administrators, artists, architects or scientists who seriously wish to learn filmmaking as a language, an art form that can help express themselves better,” said Ms. Laha.

For SVS Deverapalli, a psychologist who participated in one of the online workshops, they represented an attempt to make a film with the minimal, make the learner break unwritten rigidities, while Shobhit Kasbi, an engineer, felt that the venture travelled beyond filmmaking and “connected to the growing person inside you. 

It was meaningful that the workshop was placed in the context of a philosophical exploration, not merely technical training, said Deepa Kiran, an educationist and story-teller.

“Many of our courses, especially the ones in lockdown we conducted on a voluntary payment scheme. Even the courses which have stipulated fees, we have a number of scholarships to ensure that those truly interested and deserving are not left out because of financial stress,” Ms. Hushing said.

AZIMVTH ASHRAM HARIDWAR IN COLLABORATION WITH AV ART SERVICE Offers an 11-day virtual workshop about Ramlila (UNESCO intangible cultural heritage).
Our next edition starts on 28th October, 2020. Scholarships available for Aurovilians.

Register online or contact Rashmi by phone (9448235935) or email (gandakirashmi@gmail.com) with ‘Ramlila’ in the subject line.
Https://azimvth.org/2020/10/09/ram-lila-stories/

Home away from Home – in Auroville

“A mosaic of a community”

After a two-year residency in the Parisian ‘Le Mobilier National’, Indo-French artist Mario d’Souza dreamed of another voyage to India; the country that remains his second home and where he spent the first 22 years of his life. When a project with ‘Fondation Martell’ culminated in an auction that raised sufficient funds to cover this journey, he eagerly confirmed his participation in Auroville’s collaborative artist platform ‘La Petite Maison’; a program largely inspired by Mario’s own enthusiasm. After Auroville, Mario’s journey continues onwards to a residency and exhibition in Delhi, before returning to France for a residency with ‘Fondation Rothschild’.

At the age of 22, Mario left India to explore France, while on a scholarship of ‘École des Beaux-Arts’. He says it took him 18 years to pinpoint with exact precision what inspires him as a person and as an artist: “Truth”, he says, “is what drives me. And this, in my life and in my work, has become my priority.”

Inspired to portray the promise held in a childhood memory and to capture and share the essence of cultural elements that are alive to him, Mario d’Souza creates art with the vitality of local traditional objects, colors and textures. Entwined in Mario’s memory that he calls ‘story of the mind’ where he raises himself by vigorously clutching the helm of his mother’s saree is the conscious feel that this saree texture bestowed him confidence, safety, gravity, fullness, and strength.

From the magnitude of this moment where he realized he was held by his own grasp, emerged his paramount fascination with hands and all things hand-made. “Handicrafts and artisan products are testimonies to the human hands that toil and create things”, Mario says, “Watching a weaver make a basket or a box is like going on a world tour: until you open it you are going on a journey, imagining what it contains, and it can be filled with emotions and love, and then shared with someone.”

The recurring theme of hands and focal point in his drawings followed him to Auroville. He reveals: “Here, we see hands in prayer, hands that dig and plant in the Earth, hands in rituals, hands in movement; they are the screen through which you can see the inner soul. The hands bring the inner soul to work. Silent hands are lost.” The form, shape and movement of different hands is a key element of Mario’s exhibition, in which he showcases his continued research in the context of his experience in Auroville. Reinforcing Mario’s drawings is how he chooses to present them; each one is carefully mounted in a custom handmade wooden frame, made by Gagan.

During his month in residency at ‘La Petite Maison’ Mario connected, exchanged, and engaged with the wide array of people who helped him create the material for his artwork. He explains that throughout his stay, there was no compromise on quality of material. Daily, Mario uncovered its true value and learned how to reward it fairly. To name a few, Mario approached Vanaville to make boxes out of marble paper from Sri Aurobindo Handmade Paper Factory, sat and conversed with a basket weaving family in Kuilappalayam, connected with merchants of handloom sarees in Pondicherry, and visited Auroville’s EcoService to collect recycled items.

By spending time in Auroville and the outdoors Mario discovered again the world as he knew it as a child. The beautiful green canopy at his doorstep he found spiritually moving, contemplating on the perfection and specificity of each leaf. “A mango tree leaf is different from a laurel leaf, which is different from a palm leaf” he observes. His drawing are inspired by this contemplation, as he paid particular attention to the forms that connect people and nature.

Mario chose the materials and colors for his work carefully. Transported back in time, he was flooded with memories of how he used to write greeting cards as a child, on Ashram paper. Honoring the synchronicity of the memory, he chose to use the same paper to cover the boxes that hold handcrafted and handwoven items. In a perfect blend of memories, research, and passion, and with a silent mantra of ‘mother’ flowing through him, Mario prepared and painted 20 handcrafted boxes. In what Mario describes as a “mosaic of community” each box is laid out carefully and  holds a different drawing and a specific accompanying saree cloth. Together, these represent the journey of this communal endeavour, and each one contains objects that honour the very fabric of human labour: our hands.

While in Auroville, Mario will host a workshop in which he shares the process and methodology of his artwork.

Further, he will hold an artist talk where he will dive into the meaning of home and community, territory, working together, gestures, traveling, and nationality.

CWIT enables Indians in the early to mid stages of their careers to spend time in the UK, helping them to achieve artistic, academic and professional ambitions and to broaden their international contacts.

Who was Charles Wallace?

Charles Wallace was born in Calcutta in 1855. He lived, worked and flourished there, founding the Shaw Wallace company (though there are no connections now between CWIT and Shaw Wallace).

Charles Wallace died in 1916, bequeathing his modest fortune to his family for a generation and then for the benefit of those among whom he had made it.

About CWIT

In 1981, following an agreement between the Indian and British governments, CWIT was established as an English charity. It is run by four trustees. The trustees cover CWIT’s main areas of interest and are Dr Yasmin Khan, Caroline Douglas,Gregor Stark, and Cathy Stephens. The Secretary is Shreela Ghosh.

In over 30 years CWIT has made around 2700 grants. British Council India advises on CWIT’s work and gives valuable administrative support.

CWIT’s recent annual reports and accounts, including lists of scholarships and grants given, can be seen on the Charity Commission’s website

Please note: The London School of Performing Arts (LISPA) has now moved its courses to Berlin hence CWIT will no longer offer scholarships to attend them. We have agreed to reconsider if LISPA move their course back to London.

Visas

While the British Council will facilitate and advise, the cost of the visa must be borne by the applicant.

For more information, please write to cwit@in.britishcouncil.org

Privacy Policy

The General Data Protection Regulation came into force in May 2018 and requires organisations to state their policies regarding the protection of personal data. The Charles Wallace India Trust holds the personal data of applicants for grants eg their names, addresses, telephone numbers and next of kin. CWIT also  shares this data with British Council  which  manages  the application process. You can read the Privacy policy of British Council here.

We also hold UK bank account details for long term awardees to whom we arrange to pay monthly living grants. These are shared  only with our bankers Coutts & Co when we issue instructions to set up Standing Orders, and not with the British Council.